Working on the Railroad
Sirs:
In TIME for June 27 we find that at the Republican National Convention "the band struck up . . . 'I've Been Working on the Railroad,' somehow associated with the President's engineering activities."
Any Stanford graduate could have told you that this song has been sung at President Hoover's Alma Mater for years & years, with reference to Leland Stanford's activities in the railroad world, not Herbert Hoover's activities in the engineering world.
CLIFFORD ANDERSON Minneapolis, Minn.
"Good Publicity"
Sirs: Just wanted to thank you for the good publicity you have given me in your magazine, and I thought you might be interested in having my very latest picture. I enclose, herewith, a picture of Mrs. Field and myself, taken the last day of the recent campaign, showing me just exactly as I am and just exactly as Mrs. Field and myself made the campaign.
HENRY FIELD (Republican Nominee for U. S. Senator) Shenandoah, Iowa
Rug Results
Sirs:
Such quick results! How did you contrive it? I received a money order pinned to a blank sheet of paper on June 14 in payment for the $50-rug I sent Senator Bratton a year ago. You are better than an attorney.
GEORGE R. BLOOMFIELD Toadlena. N. Mex.
Greek Cheer
Sirs:
Billy Phelps notwithstanding, Yale's Brekekekex cheer is not "the only one in the world . . . most of which is in Greek" (TIME, June 27).
Bryn Mawr College classes of even years cheer in Greek (the "odds" in Latin). The College long cheer is in Greek, the short in Latin. And it is very probable that Yale and Bryn Mawr share no monopoly.
CONTENT R. PECKHAM New Rochelle, N. Y.
Charlotte's Symphony
Sirs:
In your magazine of June 6 I notice an article relative to the State Symphony, in which you say, "No single city was affluent enough to support a full-fledged one alone. . . ."
In January of this year an orchestra was organized in Charlotte and from the literature I am sending you will be able to ascertain the type of work we are doing. We have about 15 former symphony men playing in this orchestra and in due time you will hear great things from this group. We have in Mr. Guillermo de Roxlo one of the most capable of the young composers and conductors of Europe. This orchestra is supported by music lovers of the city and is sponsored by three of the outstanding leagues of the city. A large number of our orchestra went to Chapel Hill to assist in the State Symphony. . . .
L. R. SIDES Director of Music, Charlotte City Schools Charlotte, N. C.
B. E. F.
Sirs:
May I suggest that the head "Bonus Bums" would be more appropriate than the B. E. F. that you use for your articles on the Bonus Expeditionary Force?
I make this suggestion because to millions of people B. E. F. has always stood for men who fought in the British Expeditionary Forces for 36-c- a day and a bonus (called blood money by them) of -L-5 for the first year and -L-1 for each subsequent year.
FRANCIS WILLIAMS Boston, Mass.
New York's Wagner
Sirs:
We, the undersigned, would appreciate a sketch of our Senator, Robert F. Wagner, similar to those printed by your magazine. . . .
JAMES M. MILLER DAVID HANSON H. A. McTAMANEY VERNON SHELEY FRED BAXTER Newburgh, N. Y.
The record of Senator Robert Ferdinand ("Bob'') Wagner of New York is as follows:
Born: Nastatten, Province of Hessen Nassau, Germany, June 8. 1877.
Career: Brought to the U. S. at the age ol eight on a freight steamer, he grew up in Manhattan's Yorkville where his father worked as janitor. From public school he went to the College of the City of New York, helped along financially by his brother Gus, a cook at the New York Athletic Club. Simultaneously he began to practise law and politics. As a Tammany henchman he was sent to the State Assembly in 1905, was promoted to the State Senate in 1909. He served a brief term as lieutenant governor following the impeachment of Governor Sulzer. At Albany he met and became fast friends with Alfred Emanuel Smith, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and James John Walker. For eight years he was Democratic leader of the Senate. So well did he serve Tammany Hall that in 1918 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court in New York. His only criminal trial was that of Walter Ward, scion of the baking family, who was acquitted of murdering a sailor. His service on the bench was above the Tammany average. In 1926 he resigned to run for the Senate to which he was elected over Republican James Wadsworth Jr. who lost his rural constituency on the liquor issue.
In Congress: When he first took his seat, he introduced three bills which were later to help make his reputation as a Senator. They called for a compilation of Unemployment statistics, advance planning of Federal public works and a new system of national employment agencies. Because times were good and jobs plentiful, his proposals and his warnings of trouble ahead were ignored. Not until the Depression gripped the country was he able to get action on his bills. Then he became the Senate's prime exponent of Unemployment legislation.
He voted for: Boulder Dam (1928), 15-Cruiser Bill (1929), Reapportionment (1929), Government Operation of Muscle Shoals (1931), London Naval Treaty (1930), the Hoover Moratorium (1931), the Reconstruction Finance Corp. (1932), Tax Bill (1932).
He voted against: Jones (Five & Ten) Prohibition Penalty Bill (1929), the Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930), Wartime Income Tax Rates (1932), Full Bonus Payment (1932), Federal Employe Paycuts (1932).
He votes Wet, drinks Wet.
Legislative Hobby: Unemployment relief. He had the 1930 Census Act so amended as to take the first authentic count of national joblessness. He put through his bill for advance planning of public works. His measure for job bureaus was given a pocket veto, largely, it was said, because a Republican President did not like the political spectacle of a Democratic Senator running away with the relief show. He forced through a special Senate investigation of Unemployment insurance only to be sidetracked by the Republican committee making the inquiry. An advocate of Unemployment insurance, he made a mild individual report in favor of Federal subventions in the form of income-tax deductions for companies putting aside reserves for relief. When Senate Democrats sponsored a full-sized relief program this session, he became their expert spokesman in framing legislation for a $500,000,000 public works program, a $300,000,000 direct aid loan to states and a $1,500,000,000 increase in the R. F. C.'s capital to stimulate self-liquidating public construction. This omnibus measure was popularly given his name--a rare honor for a Democrat in a Republican Senate. He met White House opposition with judicial patience and restraint. Only when the President raised the cry of "pork," did the bill's sponsor lash out at him for having been "wrong, late and futile throughout the Depression."
In appearance he is short, thickset, broad-faced. He dresses smartly in greys and browns. From his watch chain dangles a Phi Beta Kappa key. He smokes cigars. No rough & tumble debater, he makes serious formal addresses, meaty with ideas and facts to which most of his colleagues listen attentively. His command of language is good but his diction has still a touch of the Tammany East Side ("woik," "goil"). A liberal on legislation, he does not consort with the Republican Insurgents or the "radicals" in his own party. A Tammany politician, he has to his credit the appointment of Mr. Justice Cardozo to the U. S. Supreme Court. Because he is mild, friendly, approachable in manner, his popularity with the press gallery is great.
Outside Congress: A widower, he spends his work days at the new fashionable Shoreham Hotel in Washington, his weekends at his Yorkville apartment in Manhattan. He plays mediocre golf, goes to baseball games, attends the opera about once a week. He takes a moderate amount of social diversion. Full of tact, he keeps on good terms with Al Smith, Governor Roosevelt and Mayor Walker all at the same time. In his spare time he likes to speak over the radio. Once a Lutheran, he married an Irish Catholic which left his religion vague and indeterminate.
Impartial Senate observers rate him thus: an industrious legislator who by hard study has become the Senate's authority on Unemployment relief; a Tammany politician who in public service and ideals has risen far above his kind: an above-the-average Senator capable of quiet leadership who has the respect and affection of all his colleagues. His term expires March 3, 1933--ED.
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